Charm of the stars
by YuryJulian
Summary: Short story about a person who discovers the magic of the stars.


_Disclaimer: I don't own the series seaQuest DSV or their figures and earn no money writing this story. _

_Title: Charm of the stars_

_Author: YuryJulian_

_Beta: Anarore_

_Season: II_

_Category: General_

_Rating: K_

**Charm of the stars **

Dagwood walked dreamly along the nocturnal beach. The unplanned stop of the seaQuest in the strange port also had its good sides. Nearly the entire crew was given shore leave until the damaged turbines were repaired . Thus a welcome alternation.

As he left, Darwin followed him a while, but then he found it was time for him to catch some fisch.

Now the Dagger made his way back to the boat. He was tired and still wanted to eat another large pudding. Exactly, a tasty chocolate pudding.

"Captain Bridger?" he said uncertainly when he came to the dock and saw a person sitting outside on the low wall. The light was too dim to identify him correctly. In the early evening the entrance to the boat had been brightly illuminated, but now not even a small emergency light was glowing.

"Hello Dagwood." Bridger answered..

"What are you doing here?" Dagwood continued. The Captain would certainly not guard his boat, that was what those evil-looking officers were there for. But he saw none of them at the moment. Were they also sent on vacation for some hours?

On the other side of Bridger, which Dagwood couldn't see , another person straightened up. "We were looking for shooting stars." Lucas said.

"Not you, you use me as a pillow and fall half asleep."

"I've already seen five." Lucas held his hand right in front of Bridger's eyes.

"All coincidence. You most certainly blinked and saw a short line." stated Bridger.

"Not at this time of year."

The Dagger looked upwards. Thousands of small stars shone down on him on this clear night. "Dagwood has never seen a shooting star."

Lucas waved to him. "Then come and join us. There is enough room to lie down."

„Sitting will do, too", added Bridger.

The teenager got some pillows ready he had taken with him and gave one of them to Dagwood so that his friend didn't have to lie on the bare soil. He showed him the place in the sky which he had to pay attention to and then climbed back on the concrete wall in order to lie down on his back. He laid his head on the pillow which lay directly beside Bridger.

"Hope the gentleman are comfortable", said the Captain with a sidelong glance at his youngest crew member.

"Can't complain, thank you."

Someone should wash his head for such insolences , thought Nathan to himself, but he let him be as so often. It was fun to let the teenager have his own way. He should feel happy on the boat and not been patronized by him. It hadn't been easy for him with his parents. Therefore he owed him a few liberties.

"Is that a shooting star there?" Dagwood pointed his finger at a flashing dot in the sky.

"No, that's an airplane. A shooting star doesn't flash, it is like a stripe that moves over the sky." Lucas explained.

"Then that is one there." The Dagger pointed immediately to another place, which seemed strange to him. One dot dragged itself slowly across the sky.

"No, again wrong. I said it looks like a stripe, didn't I?"

Dagwood scratched his head, confused. "Was that an airplane again?"

"If it doesn't flash it's a satellite."

Bridger leant his hands behind his back on the wall. "We have shot up so many satellites in the last decades, it is a miracle that we have another free spot in the sky at all over which none of these things move. I don't want to know what it looks like up there."

Lucas looked up at him. "However, they are necessary. Without these satellites many of our devices would not function and you were always glad if we could find someone by satellite who we would never have found without these technologies."

"That's true."

Startled, Dagwood jumped up. "There was a stripe!"

"Then you have one wish free", said the Captain.

"Wish?" Slowly the Dagger sat down again.

"Exactly, if you see a shooting star then you are allowed to wish something." added Lucas.

"Then I wish to see another shooting star."

"No, Dagwood, you may not speak it out loud. The desires will be fulfilled if you believe it deep inside. Anyway, you will still see another lot of shooting stars today."

"You are mad about them." Bridger stated.

"Every time it concerns observing the Perseids. At home I mostly went out into our garden with a warm blanket, a hot chocolate and a tasty pizza. I am really annoyed that I have no telescope here. On such a clear night you could surely observe the stars very well." Lucas went into raptures.

Nathan thought about it. "I believe I have some of my friend Scotts photographs, which he took during his space missions."

"Really? Could he also get some of a few colored fogs? Once I had a calendar with photographs of the universe; there were really beautiful pictures inside."

"Lucas?"

"Yes?"

"You'll miss all the shooting stars if you don't stop dreaming soon."

"But I'm a genius, they always dream."

Smiling, the captain left it at that. He cast a quick glance at Dagwood. He was staring upwards with his mouth open, just like a small child. Amused, he looked at the starlit sky again. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a further shooting star. Since he had everything which made him happy, he didn't need to wish for something new with every shooting star. It was enough joy for him to observe this phenomenon.

"Dagwood already saw four shooting stars" Dagwood said proudly and showed the number with his right hand. "Can so many be seen each night?"

"No, normally that's quite unusual, but it's August, so we were able to see the Perseids again. It happens every year." Lucas began to explain from the beginning.

"Aeh... Perserti?" Again Dagwoood had to scratch his head. Such complicated words often came up when he was with Lucas. But he discovered there was less he didn't know. He learned many things this way. He would definitely become a very smart Dagwood soon.

"They are called Perseids. They are swarms of shooting stars which are always seen in August. They come from the constellation of Perseus, that is the reason for their name." said Lucas.

"Why only in August?"

"That has something to do with the earth's orbit around the sun."

"Ah, I know. Tim gave me a book where it's written inside. Dagwood likes looking at it because there so many colourful pictures in it."

"Such pictures are beautiful. I am the same. As soon as I have a new book with many pictures I have to look at them again and again." The teenager stretched his hands towards the sky. "Sometimes it feels as if you can pick the stars directly from the sky if you stretch your hand up far enough."

Dagwood did the same. As he balled his fist to pick up one of the stars and opened it in front of his face to see his star, he found nothing. Disappointed, he ran his finger of his other hand over the lines on his palm.

"Shall we go in already?" Bridger asked.

"Is it that late?" Lucas did not seem to intend to gave up his cosy place.

"It should not escape your notice that it is already two o'clock in the morning. We really don't have to wait for the last night owls of the crew. Come now!" He pushed the teenager from his pillow and rose.

Sullen, the boy stood up. "Alright..", he sighed. "We are still here tomorrow."

"Are we going to look at stars again?" Dagwood wanted to go back to the boat just as little as his friend did.

"Yes!"

"Then come on now. If you both haven't really seen enough now, you can look at some pictures of stars and nebulae on the computer." Bad idea of the Captain because he made the two come to the very good idea to spend the whole night in front of the computer till dawn. Very much to the disappointment of Piccolo. When he had enough of Lucas and Dagwood he moved out of the cabin to Dagger's one and slept there. These two chatterboxes could not even be calm. One was asking questions and the other one found his role as a teacher.

THE END

translated August/September 2005

written August 2004

A very big thank you to Anarore who is working on this and other stories of mine although she is no seaQuest fan and took all here free time for correcting my worse english.Thank you very much!

More stories will follow.


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